earth to victoria

Cake 1/3 cup cocoa powder 1/3 cup water 4 1/2 ounces dark melted chocolate 4 1/2 ounces melted butter 1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar 1 cup ground almonds 4 eggs 2 packets of raspberries Chocolate Whipped Cream 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup sugar 3 ounces melted dark chocolate Ganache 6 1/2 ounces dark chocolate 1/3 cup heavy cream Preheat oven to 325F.  Grease 9 inch round cake pan, set aside. Blend sifted cocoa powder with water until smooth; stir in chocolate, butter, sugar, ground almonds, and egg yolks. Beat egg whites in small bowl until soft peaks form, then fold into chocolate mixture. Pour mixture in pan.   Bake 1 hour and 25 minutes. Make chocolate whipped cream by blending heavy cream on high and adding sugar.  Once cream starts to come up add melted chocolate and continue whipping.  Cover and set aside in fridge. Make ganache by heating heavy cream over low heat on stove until it starts to boil, then pour over c...

Back in October I made my first ever pull apart cake in the shape of a football for my little brother Noah's sixteenth birthday.  This "cake" was very easy to make.  I used regular-sized cupcakes pushed together to get the "boat" like shape of the football, and I didn't have to cut any of the cupcakes, they were all left alone, full-sized.   After the unfrosted cupcakes were in the football shape, I just frosted over them all and decorated the best I could.  What was nice about this pull-apart cake was there was no actual cutting of the cake itself.  If someone wanted a piece they would just pull out one of the cupcakes from underneath and for the most part, it came off as a whole.  It wasn't too messy or anything, but there was a lot of extra frosting, but I personally never complain about more frosting.   I don't have the recipe to post that I used, it was just a simple chocolate cake and chocolate frosting recipe.  I replaced ...

Ingredients: 2 ripened bananas 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt 2 sticks (1 cup) butter 1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups finely chopped leftover Holiday candy of your choice (I used Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Three Musketeers, Kit Kats, and Milky Ways.) Instructions: Heat oven to 350 F. Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl. Melt butter over medium heat.  Whisk butter and remove from heat as butter begins to brown.  Set aside. Beat butter, sugars, and bananas until thoroughly blended.  Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until well combined.  Add the dry ingredients slowly until combined. Add in chopped candy. Grease cupcake pans, and add batter to them.  Add more finely chopped candy on top. Bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes. 

Today my boyfriend and I went to this pottery painting place in Cheshire, Connecticut, one we've never been to before, called Ready Glaze Fire .  It was extremely beautiful, an elegant little place in a lovely small town, but we both agree that the Pottery Piazza in Planville, Connecticut is better. We're not trying to be mean, but this place was a little awkward.  It's extremely quiet in there and every time you do talk, it echos and everyone can hear your conversation.   Also there weren't many options to chose from to paint.  I'm not sure if it was the time we went, four weeks before Christmas, but the racks for choosing were pretty bare.  I overheard a lot of people asking for things and all the lady said was they're getting it in.  She said this about literally everything.  They didn't even have white paint there.  So when I asked for it she just responded with, "We're getting it in."   Another thing we didn't like was you'...

I made these cute Thanksgiving themed cupcakes last Thursday for the big holiday.   And they were a huge hit.  Everyone was taking pictures of and with them and adding them to social networking sites instantly.  They were so adorable and a real lot of fun to make. Here's how I did it: Corn on the Cob:  Yellow frosting, and all different colors and shades of white, yellow, and orange Jelly Beans. Peas and Carrots:  Green frosting, green jelly beans (or green M&M's, I also used these) and cut up orange Starbursts. Mashed Potatoes and Gravy: White frosting, caramel (I used coffee flavored!), and a yellow Starburst to look like a slab of butter. Turkey Leg:  Chocolate frosting, crushed graham crackers (they taste WAY better then Bran Flakes, even though the Bran Flakes look more realistic!), and melted white chocolate I squeezed onto parchment paper and then froze. Pudding:  Chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles! I hope this ...

The other week I bought these nail decals off ShopJeen  for ten dollars and I was so excited to use them!  Here's how they came out. The directions were super clear, basically paint your nails, cut out the pictures, place them in water, and then place them on your nail, and pat dry.  Once dry use a clear coat of nail polish to make them stay. If these were as easy to use as the directions they would have come out a lot better.  These took me quite a long time to do.  The little pictures are basically temporary tattoos and they rip extremely easy and stick together, along to everything else.  They're hard to center because they move around a lot.  You have to be extremely carefully and patient while working with these things.   They look super awesome, but they don't last.  Hours later, when I thought they were dry, which they were, I washed my hands in hot water and they started breaking and melting off my nails.  Needless to ...

Lately I've been really fascinated with the completely abandoned village Johnsonville in East Haddam, Connecticut. The whole town is in pretty great shape.  I mean obviously the buildings could use some up-keep, but for having no care in over twenty years it's holding up pretty well.  Nothings collapsed so far, that I've discovered.   I didn't take photographs of the inside of the buildings because the quality from my iphone was awful.  The glare was so bad, through the windows, but it was quite crazy how some of the buildings still had stuff in them.  For example the school room had a chalk board left behind with the name "Claire" written on it, books, and school supplies thrown about. Old signs were left in the buildings from when the village was open to the public and held tours.